Photo courtesy of Style Machine
Museum of Ambiguous Objects at Style Machine
Guests examining the "Museum of Ambiguous Objects" at Style Machine (2026).
A new arts space in Riverwest celebrates its grand opening this weekend. Located at 514 E. Center St. next to Club Timbuktu and across from Mad Planet, Style Machine is run by artists for artists, designed as a hub for live music, film screenings, creative workshops, private parties, divinations and more. The venue kicks things off on Friday, October 2 with a downtempo DJ night by xDOMINIONx and Dance Commandr of darkwave party duo Goth Barge from 8 p.m. till midnight.
“I decided to invest in this place and thought we could start an arts center here,” executive director Anna Fortune says. She and members of the Style Machine team each bring a unique creative background to the table; Fortune is an apparel designer and tarot reader as well as vocalist in the bands Fake Twin and System Sect. Program director Neil Horsky is a visual artist, designer, educator and writer who teaches at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) and plays drums in the band Gore Area II. Technical director J.J. Fortune is a designer and software architect who co-runs Goth Barge. Operations director Amanda Fish is a jeweler and party planner who is vocalist of Gore Area II.
The process of restoring and permitting the historic building that houses Style Machine, which had previously been both a tavern and art gallery, took about five years. Anna Fortune and Neil Horksy are siblings; while Fortune has lived in Milwaukee since 2016, Horsky moved here from Boston in 2023. The space’s name came from a visioning exercise, as Horsky explains, “I had been getting some traction within my art practice where I would find inspiration with words from intriguing books. We came across a book about rhetorical terms and I used intuition to grab a couple dozen interesting words. We looked through those and that was what popped out.”
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Multiple Programming
Four types of programming have been planned for Style Machine: the Cinema 514 local filmmaker series, the Smoke & Mirrors live music and DJ series, Fortune House Divinations (oracle and tarot readings) and Friday Fit Check boutique nights. “We’re starting with those and seeing what people gravitate towards,” Horsky notes.
Photo courtesy of Style Machine
Oracle deck and guidebook by Anna Fortune and Neil Horsky
Oracle deck and guidebook by Anna Fortune and Neil Horsky at Style Machine.
Style Machine is furnished with display cases for exhibitions and merchandise, and is equipped with a 15 ft. projection screen. The space features a claw machine stocked with locally made prizes like punk rock tapes and jewelry, and has a vending machine that dispenses oracle cards drawn by Horsky that feature fortunes written by Fortune. The bar features beer, wine, THC and non-alcoholic options including house-made craft sodas. Next to the bar is a DJ booth, and around the corner is the private room for tarot and oracle readings.
As a soft launch to Style Machine, the owners unveiled Horsky’s Museum of Ambiguous Objects exhibition for the two most recent Center Street Daze festivals. “I’ve been collecting ambiguous objects for about 15 years,” Horsky elaborates. “They’re mass-produced objects where you’re not sure what their function is - it’s not readily apparent how you’d use them, but you know that they must have utilitarian function because they’re mass-produced.”
Photo courtesy of Style Machine
Guests with ambiguous objects - Style Machine
Polaroids of guests with ambiguous objects displayed with the "Museum of Ambiguous Objects" at Style Machine (2026).
While these objects are on display, viewers are invited to come up with their own names and functions for each and then include a sales pitch. In fact, the Style Machine folks have adapted the Museum of Ambiguous Objects into a semi-annual game show called Name That Schlock, where contestants do the same thing but with a live audience. “As consumers, everyone in society is fluent in advertising language,” Horsky contends. “Usually people respond well to humor so you combine the two as a form of creativity. It’s aiming for approachable interaction in a surreal, anything-goes arts space that may be intimidating or off-putting to anyone outside that niche.”
Beyond its grand opening, Style Machine has lots in store planned already including a screening of local filmmaker Max Hey’s documentary Now! More! Yes! featuring TW Hansen on Friday, October 9. To get a feel for the Style Machine whimsy, folks may mess around with an interactive art game on its website or browse the poster art series in its online shop. To get in touch, contact email@stylemachine.art.
